Sharp GP7 vs Samsung S85H

In terms of HDR, the Sharp GP7 can pleasantly surprise us. The maximum brightness around 500 nits is the threshold at which the real advantages of high dynamic range become visible. During our tests, we achieved stable values between 430 and 500 nits, which translated to clearer distinction of elements in both bright and slightly darker scenes. Additionally, there is a DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of around 95%, which allows for vibrant, visually pleasing colors. Of course, this is not the highest league, but for this price range – a big plus.

Interestingly, the new WOLED SE panel has brought a slight improvement in brightness to the S85 series. In the same movie scenes the previous year's model stayed closer to about 700 nits, while the S85H can reach around 800 nits. Of course this isn't a change that completely transforms the HDR experience, but that extra headroom is noticeable especially with small highlights, reflections, and stronger special effects. Around 800 nits is already a very good result for an entry-level OLED and in most films it's enough for HDR to have the right impact. Bright elements can clearly stand out from perfect black, and that contrast still does most of the heavy lifting here. You should remember the typical limitation of organic technology, though. When a very bright scene covers a large part of the screen, brightness can drop by almost half. This is the result of the panel's protection mechanisms, which limit its power with large bright areas.

Colors

The S85H can produce very pleasant, saturated colors and in most HDR films it looks really good in that respect. We measured roughly 95% DCI-P3 coverage, so the palette most often used in movies is reproduced to a very large degree. Skin tones, greens, and stronger reds still have appropriate intensity, and during normal viewing it's hard to fault them. Only when you look more broadly at BT.2020 do the limitations of the new WOLED SE panel become apparent. Coverage was around 70%, a bit less than in previous-generation WOLEDs and noticeably less than in QD-OLED panels. In films this isn't a major loss, because most productions rarely use such highly saturated colors. You notice it more often in games, where developers are much more likely to employ more intense colors.

Upon taking it out of the box, in movie mode, the GP7 doesn’t perform badly at all. In HD materials, we noticed slight disturbances in white balance – drops in red and blue, which made the image have a slightly greenish tint. This is visible, for example, on the faces of characters, which become less three-dimensional. The gamma is somewhat brightened in places, resulting in less deep blacks. In 4K HDR content, a cooler, bluish tone additionally emerges, making colors appear less natural. On the other hand, looking from the "out of the box" perspective, these settings are not bad – just minor adjustments are needed, and we will try to improve them with special tools.

To evaluate color we, of course, selected Filmmaker mode, and in SDR our S85H unit was very well calibrated out of the box. The biggest deviation appears in the white balance, where a bit of blue drops out as brightness increases. In practice this means whites and grays have a slightly warmer tint than they should. It's not a major error and during normal viewing it generally isn't very noticeable. Gamma also stays close to the reference value, so the image is neither overly bright nor unnecessarily dim. The S85H's SDR picture quality is therefore very good straight out of the box. A few more imperfections show up in HDR. Here the white balance shifts more as brightness increases, with blue becoming dominant and the red component noticeably lacking. That also leads to larger errors in some colors. These aren't yet distortions that completely change the character of the image, but compared directly with the reference the difference is easier to spot. Overall, Filmmaker mode is a very good starting point before professional calibration.

Calibration really makes a difference in GP7. After implementing the adjustments, we achieved a better white balance in HD content, and the colors started to look much more natural, with minimal deviations and without a clear dominance of individual colors. In 4K HDR, the change is not as spectacular, but still noticeable. The gamma has been brought to a more neutral level, although there is still a visible issue with a slight boost in the brightest details on the screen. The lack of control over dynamic tone mapping limits our maneuvering room, but nonetheless, this is a significant step forward compared to the factory settings.

Calibration yields very good results on the S85H. First, the white balance can be set almost perfectly, which removes the slightly too-warm image cast that was visible earlier in SDR. Color reproduction itself also improves significantly; most errors drop to a very low level, and in everyday viewing it's hard to notice any visible inaccuracies. You can also improve a lot in HDR, although some issues remain due to the TV's inherent characteristics. The S85H doesn't always perfectly follow the brightness curve. The darkest areas are slightly boosted, and as you approach the panel's limits you can see small deviations in the brightest highlights. On top of that there's limited coverage of the wider BT.2020 gamut, which no calibration can of course overcome. Despite this, the end result is very good, and after calibration the S85H can deliver a well-tuned, natural image.

The TV can quite well scale lower quality content. Our test panels were well reproduced, and although there was minimal aliasing on small, delicate shapes (for example, thin branches), it still looked satisfactory. Additionally, the GP7 offers a "10-bit color reproduction" feature to smooth out tonal transitions in poor quality materials. It is useful, but at the expense of some details, which is why we recommend turning it on only when we are really watching something of poor quality.

For the S85H, Samsung used the same proprietary NQ4 Gen2 AI processor as in last year’s S85F, and in terms of digital image processing it performs quite well. Upscaling is one of this model’s strengths. Lower-resolution content is well sharpened, edges look natural, and the image doesn’t feel overly artificial. Just bear in mind a common Samsung quirk: at very low resolutions you can’t completely disable overscan, so the TV may slightly crop the left edge of the image. The "noise reduction" function, which smooths weaker tonal transitions, also works very well. The processor can effectively remove posterization and other imperfections visible in lower-quality material. However, you need to be careful with the strength of this feature, because Samsung can be fairly aggressive here. When it’s enabled, along with unwanted artifacts, fine image details such as the texture of skin or clothing can start to disappear.

With a 60 Hz refresh rate and an average response time, it's hard to expect miraculous smoothness. In dynamic tests, like the one with the "little green man," it is evident that the image can blur and occasionally lose sharpness. For watching movies and series, this is acceptable, especially since one can use a motion smoother with three levels of adjustment. However, if we care about ultra-smooth sports broadcasts or super responsive gaming, we may feel underwhelmed.

The S85H uses an OLED panel, so it performs excellently when it comes to motion blur. Pixels respond virtually instantly, so moving objects don’t leave the characteristic ghosting seen on some LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable with sports or fast-paced games, where the image stays very clean even during rapid motion. The panel runs at 120 Hz. That’s more than enough for movies, TV series, sports, or console gaming. It’s a bit of a shame Samsung didn’t include a higher refresh rate aimed at PC gamers, since more and more TVs now offer 144 or even 165 Hz at 4K. However, that doesn’t affect motion perception in films or sports. There’s also the classic motion smoothing feature with two settings, blur reduction and judder reduction. So you can choose whether films should keep their cinematic 24 frames per second or if you prefer to smooth them a bit. The S85H gives you plenty of flexibility here, and the interpolation works well and, with reasonable settings, doesn’t produce too many artifacts.

Let's not kid ourselves – the GP7 is not a television for the most demanding console gamers. Yes, it has ALLM that will automatically switch the TV to low latency mode, but it lacks VRR or G-Sync. There is also no advanced menu to facilitate the adjustment of settings during gameplay. Dolby Vision in games? Yes, but with such high input lag that it's hard to talk about comfort. If we play occasionally and do not aim for the highest standards, we can get by, but fans of technical innovations will be disappointed.

The Samsung S85H is very well set up for gaming, whether you connect a console or a PC. The manufacturer didn’t skimp on ports and all four HDMI inputs support full HDMI 2.1. That means you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR, and ALLM without worrying which input to plug your console into. With several devices that matters, because you don’t have to choose between a console, a PC, or a soundbar connected via eARC. The feature set itself is very comprehensive. The S85H supports VRR, FreeSync, and automatic switching to game mode, and Samsung offers its comprehensive Game Bar, which lets you quickly view key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. The only real omission is Dolby Vision, which will matter mainly to Xbox owners. That’s a typical trait of Samsung TVs. Game Motion Plus performs very well and is one of the features that have set Samsung TVs apart for years. It smooths motion in games running at 30 or 60 fps, but does so without as large an increase in input lag as traditional motion smoothing. In practice, with more relaxed games, racing titles, or action games this can really improve perceived motion, especially if you’re sensitive to low framerates.